Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 29: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

WHERE testing at once, all trying to pat him or wave their hands before him. They babbled for one full, noisy minute before Bennett’s big voice rose above the tumult. ‘Oh, my dear boy! My dear boy! That’s preposterous! Natural—don’t blame you a bit—but preposterous! plated for an instant! The firm couldn’t run without you! Shows what a lot of old imbeciles can do to a wonderful man and— see here, gentlemen!” They subsided and looked at him. “We owe Tom about as abject an apo- logy as it is possible to make!. That’s my sense of the matter. Is it yours?” It seemed to be. ‘“ And it shall be made! It is made, right here and now, Tom! In the name of this board, I beg your pardon!” “Well, perhaps it’s not necessary to—”’ the president began: with a faint smile. “Yes, it is! Yes, it is! And we'll put the thing into lasting form, Tom! We'll put it into such shape that you'll be able to poke it under our noses if ever we try the same trick on ywu again! We'll adopt a set of resolutions and have them properly engrossed and presented to you, Tom. Upon my word, that’s precisely what we'll do!” said the repentant director, and the others nodded. ‘‘ We'll put them in shape at once. Henry!” “ Ves, sir?” I said. “ T wish to dictate them to you. Take them down very carefully and give me a type- written copy just as soon as possible. Now, let me see. Now—let me think a moment!” He scowled heavily and thought; and I sat there and waited and also did some thinking. | Because really it was a queer thing to watch, the way a man not thirty-five could dominate those old gentlemen. He always Can’t. be contem-. WAS I? 185 seemed to do it when he wanted to; he was doing it now, and he had them licked!. Even Craven had given up glancing at the door and seemed about as conscience-stricken as the rest of them. Maybe it was the mem- ory of our president’s father, who must have been an even more wonderful man; what- ever it was, that threat of resigning on the spot had given them all a shock. “Here! I have it, I think!” Mr. Ben- nett said suddenly. “If any of you have any suggestions to make, hold me up and make them. Ready, Henry? We'll say something like this: Whereas, by reason of | a most unfortunate and baseless charge made by an unknown woman against—” *“ Make that ‘ person’ instead of ‘ wom- an,’” Macpherson suggested, cautiously. “That might be found lying around fifty years after Tom was dead and start any sort of scandal in his family.” “Eh? Yes, that’s true, I suppose. That’s a good idea. Where was I? Oh, yes— made by an unknown person, Henry. Make that person. Unknown person, this board has seemed to censure its beloved——” The reason he stopped there, I presume, was that he saw that I was no longer listen- ing. It was the truth—TI wasn’t! Beautiful as those resolutions promised to be, they just drifted away before what was happen- ing over by the door. The knob had turned with an abrupt jerk and the confounded door was opening. And it stopped and for two or three sec- onds I sighted what looked like Jimmy, the office boy, having a wrestling match with somebody. ‘Then suddenly Jimmy got the worst of it and disappeared, and the portal swung wide open and in she came, the same pretty girl in the same quiet clothes. She was nearly an hour late, of course —but she was there! TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK Le} Le] v THE 186TH NOVEL, ORIGINALLY PRINTED SERIALLY IN THIS MAGA- ZINE, TO BE PUBLISHED IN BOOK FORM IS HOPALONG CASSIDY RETURNS By CLARENCE E. MULFORD, author of : Hopalong Cassidy,” etc. (Arcosy-ALLSToRY WEEKLY, December 15, 1923, to February 16, 1924.) Published in book form by Doubleday, Page & Co., New York... Ginowiles CO fl TD